Hmmm. I wasn't gonna add to the discussion because the thread seemed to have moved past it by the time I read through it, but I think I can make a larger point about Joe's perks based on his issues with the Innuendo perk.
Yes, that perk doesn't in any way force him to make sexy quips. However, as per usual with Jumpchain documents, people are treating perks as disconnected tools from the protagonist. Either it must be trying to force him to be sexy, some say, or Joe must secretly want to be sexy and is doing it subconsciously on purpose, others say. These both ignore a very basic part of how perks are shown to function in this story, however: they are well and truly a part of Joe. Joe is a different kind of person now, in a sense. He is a person who finds it easier to speak in ways that are sexy than he does to speak regularly, though because that part of him was developed unnaturally through fiat he retains the mindset of shame that previously prevented him from developing in such a direction naturally. Think about how you yourself speak. If you pay attention you'll notice you fall into patterns: similar phrases repeated and repurposed, words that are more common for you then others; when we aren't focusing on what we're saying our minds just take the most familiar paths they have to expressing certain meanings. And now for Joe those paths are all streamlined to pump out the sexiest options speakable, and the "holding back" Joe does is simply that conscious focus placed on what he is saying rather than simply speaking naturally while focusing his attention elsewhere. A piece of him has changed against his will and through his remarkable ability to project a persona he is trying to pretend himself into being who he was before.
And that's why I wanted to bring this up again, because isn't that one of the central internal conflicts to this story that progresses (to a greater or lesser extent) with every perk gained? The huge bodies of knowledge and fragmentary experiences Joe's perks give him are always something he tries to push aside or control. They alter him, and so he attempts through directed effort to remain who he was, but the sad part of it all is that by the time the perk arrives the change is already done. The inertia of Joe's previous existence will carry his old perspectives and behaviors with him for who knows how long, but those aspects of his perspective and behavior dictated by perks are forever and will eventually serve as the greater foundation for whatever kind of person he ends up being. No matter how many quarters he puts in the jar, he'll always know in his heart that that technology really was just human crap, so to speak. On the levels of mind and body, human is gradually becoming a less applicable term for what he is.
I really hope we get to see some focus on this in the therapy chapters; if not in the next one then at some point. If the therapist really knows Joe well, he ought to be able to pick up on what parts of Joe are being overwritten/heavily-altered, what parts of him and surviving in spite of all the changes, what parts he's faking, what parts of himself he thinks are fake but turn out to now be honest core bits of himself, so on and so on. We have explicit word that Strong Spark will take Joe's mental issues and replace them with new Sparkier issues, but I feel like there is ripe potential for so many other perks to shift the landscape of what is and isn't an issue for Joe, or how he approaches his persistent issues by means of negative and positive coping methods. As much as I think it would make for some great scenes, the more I go on about it the more it seems like this therapist may be in quite a bit over his head...
